Lopsided Win Is Seen in Tajikistan

By CHRISTOPHER PALA

Published: March 1, 2005

Preliminary results in parliamentary elections here gave an unexpectedly lopsided victory to the ruling party on Monday, drawing a failing grade from the world's largest election-monitoring body and a storm of protests from the other five parties in this remote former Soviet republic.

Opposition leaders announced a lawsuit seeking to have the results of Sunday's election overturned after government officials announced that 80 percent of voters had sided with the party of President Emomali Rakhmonov, a much higher percentage than monitors had expected.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the world's largest election monitoring group, said it had widespread reports of multiple voting, and it called the official turnout figure of 87 percent ''unrealistic.''

At a news conference on Monday here in the capital, Shodi Shabdolov, leader of the traditionally pro-government Communist Party, angrily read a statement announcing the lawsuit filed by the opposition parties. ''We will leave the government and the Parliament if we don't get satisfaction,'' he shouted.

In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which also voted for parliamentary seats on Sunday, the election received a less severe but still negative assessment from Western monitors.

Turnout was reported at around 60 percent nationwide, and more than half of the races were headed for runoffs, election officials were quoted as saying. The O.S.C.E.'s mission there found a lower level of fraud than in Tajikistan, saying the vote ''fell short of international standards'' and singling out ''widespread vote-buying, deregistration of candidates and interference with independent media.''